First Listen: Deafheaven, 'Ordinary Corrupt Human Love'
On Ordinary Corrupt Human Love, the band's first album in three years, Deafheaven leans more fully than ever before into elements that inspire alternate outrage and obsession.
People do not have passive reactions to or moderate opinions about Deafheaven. For the better part of the last decade, the California quintet has overlaid the bleak screech of black metal with layers of neon, giving the infamous form's harsh vibes a sudden sense of romantic longing. For some listeners, the band's first three albums — , a vivid breakthrough and an exhalation of pure feeling — still cause hearts to race, senses to tingle; for others, those same albums epitomize the perceived post-millennial trend of young, hip, urban intellectuals posers or earnest bleeding hearts: Deafheaven has become one of its generation's most divisive bands.
